The cards worked, but what an ordeal to get Comcast to activate them. It took 3 separate calls - over 1 hour each - to get someone to finally transfer me to "dispatch" who has the ability to activate the cards. Twenty minutes later, both cards were working perfectly.

80 minutes sounds pretty good. Took them three weeks for me (three visits, each 2 hours or more).

I've had five techs come out to my hosue with three sets of CableCards, all with the same result. I get analog channels 2-70, it won't tune any of the digital basic, digital plus, or movie channels. Then I get Music Choice at 400+ just fine, and I get CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, and TNT in HD. Trying to find someone competent at the Charlottesville Adelphia/Comcast office has been an exercise in futility. I went down there saturday, and they are getting me in touch with somebody named Nelson who is their lead technical manager, so hopefully something good will happen soon. I'll let you know.

Well my ordeal continues as well. Things went too well from the beginning, I suppose my time was due. I had a flawless install and both cards worked from day 1.... until right around the 8.1 update. At that time I noticed I was not receiving many of my premium channels ; All the HBO's, Showtimes and Cinemax's. I do however seem to get most everything else. I called Comcast in Orange Park Fl and was told they had done a software update to the motorola cards and they were now experiencing problems with them. Well I called back today to see if they had come up with any answers yet, and they are still clueless.
To me itseems it has to be a configuration thing. I would imagine that Most of the Comcast facilities use the exact same equipment, and yet it seems that only North Florida is suffering from the mysterious missing channels. If I tune to HBO, i get about 1 second of picture and sound, then a grey screen telling me my cable cards are 1 way and need to be authorized. My wife is just wanting to go back to DirectTv, but I dont want to give up my TiVo.

If I tune to HBO, i get about 1 second of picture and sound, then a grey screen telling me my cable cards are 1 way and need to be authorized.

I experienced this exact behavior as I was getting my cards authorized. The "dispatch" person I had on the phone had sent an initialize hit to my new card, and this was the result.

She then "called the head end" to get them to send a hit because "their hit is more powerful than mine". Sure enough, that did the trick. All premium channels (to which I have a subscription) worked after that.

If I tune to HBO, i get about 1 second of picture and sound, then a grey screen telling me my cable cards are 1 way and need to be authorized. My wife is just wanting to go back to DirectTv, but I dont want to give up my TiVo.

This is the sympom of trying to tune to a copy protected channel, but the cable company not properly entering the card/host pairing in their system. Motorola cards say "Host Validation: Valid" in the Conditional Access screen, if this has been properly done. SA Cards say "CP Auth received" in the Copy Protection screen.

If the CCI value on these screens are non-zero, then it's copy protected. You need to make sure you tuned to a problem channel on the proper cablecard for the CCI value to have any meaning - easiest way to do this is to tune to a problem channel, swap tuners, and then tune to a different problem channel on the other tuner.

Assuming this is the problem - you have to keep calling your cable company until you can find someone who knows how to fix the problem.

Well my ordeal continues as well. Things went too well from the beginning, I suppose my time was due. I had a flawless install and both cards worked from day 1.... until right around the 8.1 update. At that time I noticed I was not receiving many of my premium channels ; All the HBO's, Showtimes and Cinemax's. I do however seem to get most everything else. I called Comcast in Orange Park Fl and was told they had done a software update to the motorola cards and they were now experiencing problems with them. Well I called back today to see if they had come up with any answers yet, and they are still clueless.

I live on the west side of JAX also. I have the exact same story you do, died about three weeks ago, I can tune all channels (even HD ones) but for premium only Stars comes in, not HBO, Showtime or Cinemax.

I've tried having my cards hit by about 4 different people now, maybe 6 - 8 times now. I've had them check my rate codes, I have had them compare the host id and data id's twice, no luck. I talked to Willy last night who escalated my issue to "engineering".

If you make any progress let me know, I'll do the same for you. Anyone else in the Jacksonville Florida area having problems? Or for that matter, anyone have cable cards working in Jacksonville?

I live on the west side of JAX also. I have the exact same story you do, died about three weeks ago, I can tune all channels (even HD ones) but for premium only Stars comes in, not HBO, Showtime or Cinemax.

I've tried having my cards hit by about 4 different people now, maybe 6 - 8 times now. I've had them check my rate codes, I have had them compare the host id and data id's twice, no luck. I talked to Willy last night who escalated my issue to "engineering".

If you make any progress let me know, I'll do the same for you. Anyone else in the Jacksonville Florida area having problems? Or for that matter, anyone have cable cards working in Jacksonville?

-Aaron

Thanks for the replies. I hope to get some sort of result soon. I will keep trying to find someone who knows what they are doing.

I just thought I would post my Comcast debacle here for any one else who may be having a similar problem.

I recently bought a new 46" LCD and Tivo S3 for our living room. Comcast said they couldn't be out to install my cable cards until the next week, so I swung by the office and picked up the cards. I was receiving only basic cable, and my local channels in HD. I called comcast back and they said there was likely a filter on my line that needed to be removed for the rest of the channels to come through.

Now, I am a fairly smart individual, so I would never implicate myself in a crime, but the cable connections in my neighborhood are all at ground level (no poles). The filters weren't the problem. With no way to explicitly convince the phone-bot of that, I waited.

The technician came out while I was at work and told my wife the filters were removed, we should be fine now, and left. I check when I get home from work, and there is no change. I call comcast (again) and tell them the filters have been removed , but I am still not receiving my service. Fast forward through 45 minutes of rigorous troubleshooting (yes, that is sarcasm) and we make an appointment for the technician to come back out.

I am feeling tired, pissed, cold, and alone so I call Tivo's support number. The lady is very helpful, and verifies that what I told the comcast phone-bot should have proven the problem was theirs to fix (connected: yes, EnablebyCP:no). The Tivo lady told me the exact verbage to use with the phonebot to get them to fix the problem.

"My cable card needs to have the authorization sent again. The card is currently authorized for a lower class of service."

She said not to say "hit my cable card" because people may interpret it differently, and not resend the auth. I called back this time, was put on hold, and before the guy even came back, the tivo was telling me there was a service error. I rebooted it, and everything was bang on.

I saw my bill today. It has two line items for CableCard with $0, but a "Digital additional outlet" fee for $4.99. Bastards. The FCC really needs to do something about this, because paying monthly fees for each CableCard is almost as bad as having to rent their proprietary boxes. Now they're getting me to pay $5 per month for something that costs $2 to make, instead of $10/month for something that costs $100.

Well, it's tolerable for now since I only have one device for which I want digital service, and they didn't charge for the technician to do the install. It would be another story if I had a house with 3 or 4 CableCard devices.

I should have known I would run into problems. I broke down and bought a 2nd series 3 from Costco. Called to schedule the cable cards install. It was scheduled for tonight between 6 and 8. I just got a call that they have to cancel... THEY HAVE NO CABLE CARDS. And, since they didn't come in this week, they can only hope that they arrive next week...

So, here I go again...but it's different already.I should have known I would run into problems. I broke down and bought a 2nd series 3 from Costco. Called to schedule the cable cards install. It was scheduled for tonight between 6 and 8. I just got a call that they have to cancel... THEY HAVE NO CABLE CARDS. And, since they didn't come in this week, they can only hope that they arrive next week...At least I didn't activate the Tivo yet...-Kevin

You should try an OTA antenna if you haven't already. If you can get any stations, the quality is superb.

I have had that general problem and for me it is a signal strength issue. You can have a signal that is too weak or too strong. There is a window that works best. When the tech comes out, make sure he gets out his meter and checks the strength. If you have multiple TVs and he makes changes anywhere except at the unit you are currently having problems with, there is a very good chance of problems developing else where -- so make sure the signal strength gets checked everywhere.

I'm not impressed by today's wade into the Comcast Cablecard waters. I just came back from the local office, where I tried to pick up two CCs. The woman at the counter said they wouldn't give me them and that they had to be installed, and that in fact none were in the office (I don't believe this last part).

Then, before she would schedule a CC install, she tried to talk me out of it, asking why I needed two, why I wanted CCs in the first place, etc. When I told her I had an S3, she sort of rolled her eyes. I asked if there was a problem, and she said "it's just that most people who have CableCards return them to us."

This is not a good omen. Hopefully things go well during my 10-12 window tomorrow.

Well, a couple of pages back I posted how my once working TiVo lost many of the premium channels. Today A very knowledgable Comcast tech called me on the phone and said "lets get your Cards fixed". A few minutes on the phone with him was all it took, and I am now back up and running with all of my channels... For now anyway.

I'm not impressed by today's wade into the Comcast Cablecard waters. I just came back from the local office, where I tried to pick up two CCs. The woman at the counter said they wouldn't give me them and that they had to be installed, and that in fact none were in the office (I don't believe this last part).

Then, before she would schedule a CC install, she tried to talk me out of it, asking why I needed two, why I wanted CCs in the first place, etc. When I told her I had an S3, she sort of rolled her eyes. I asked if there was a problem, and she said "it's just that most people who have CableCards return them to us."

This is not a good omen. Hopefully things go well during my 10-12 window tomorrow.

Make sure the tech follows Tivos instructions to the letter. Too many of the techs just jam both cards in at the same time and try to make that work. It doesn't.

Has anyone ever received an STB for OnDemand at no additional charge for either the box or the outlet? It seems patently stupid to may $168 a year for the "privilege" of renting movies or PPV events from Comcast.

Background: Before I ditched DirecTV for Comcast, I was assured that there would be no charge for an STB to access OnDemand, which is of course part of the package I pay for. The install work order also shows no charge for the STB. However, when the bill arrives, sure enough there is a $7/mo and a $6.95/mo charge related to the STB. After three hours total on the phone, it seems there is no way to avoid these charges. Therefore I am returning the box to Comcast tomorrow to avoid these charges.

Comcast apparently wants me to use their competitors such as Blockbuster, Netflix, etc. for movie rentals and PPV.

Hi all, I hope this hasn't been discussed before, but I thought it worth mentioning. I received a call from comcast today (wasn't home so they left a message) saying they are switching over to cablecard 2.0, and that I needed to call this phone number with my TV on (I'm assuming this is to update their firmware?). Has anyone else received this? I'm in the SF Bay Area.

I'm in Seattle and I just lost my premium channels last night. I spent 20 minutes on the phone with Comcast and they said it would be fixed in 10 minutes after I got off the phone. It's been 30 minutes and counting... Anyone else in this boat, or perhaps has a solution?

I now have the exact same problem. The tech who installed my CCs for the first time left about 90 mins ago. He tried to install both CCs at once (thanks, Gregor, for reminding me to give him the instructions to do one at a time).

I now can view analog cable, and the network HDs, but no digital or movie channels.

I've had five techs come out to my hosue with three sets of CableCards, all with the same result. I get analog channels 2-70, it won't tune any of the digital basic, digital plus, or movie channels. Then I get Music Choice at 400+ just fine, and I get CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, and TNT in HD. Trying to find someone competent at the Charlottesville Adelphia/Comcast office has been an exercise in futility. I went down there saturday, and they are getting me in touch with somebody named Nelson who is their lead technical manager, so hopefully something good will happen soon. I'll let you know.